ZAGREB, December 1, 2019 The Social Democratic Party’s (SDP) candidate for president of the republic, Zoran Milanović, said in Virovitica on Saturday that citizens were complaining to him about feeling undervalued and noted that that was how education-sector workers were feeling as well, but that he did not want to manipulate the ongoing teachers’ strike the way the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) had manipulated a war veterans’ protest five years ago.
“I don’t want to side with them like a hyena, which is what the HDZ did with the protesting war veterans five years ago. It is unfair and inhumane. Maybe they resent some things about me, but the current work stoppage in schools, the kind of which has not happened since World War II, has nothing to do with my government. When I hear today the HDZ accusing me of the situation in the education system, then, no matter how much I feel sorry about children not going to school, I also feel a certain amount of satisfaction because people can see what kind of manipulators and disseminators of untruth they have to deal with,” said Milanović.
He said that incumbent President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović was shunning presidential debates and that she would continue to do so until the end of the campaign.
“It’s no wonder she is persistently accusing me of the teachers’ strike because she has sided with the Andrej Plenković government. The two of them are from the same camp… they were mentored by Ivo Sanader who left scorched earth behind as well as financial chaos which we (the SDP) had to deal with,” said Milanović.
Speaking of his platform, Milanović said that his emphasising the term normalcy was about the need to eradicate mental and fiscal violence.
“Croatia has been a victim of ruthless plundering, the best example of it here in Virovitica is the fact that 17 million kuna has disappeared from the town budget and nobody knows how. Police should have investigated the matter long ago, but they did not. I don’t know what they have been doing for the past six months, they are evidently protecting someone,” he said.
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